Most college students are required to pay “mandatory student fees” each semester that fund student activities on campus. The website Campus Reform reported on the astonishing statistics about mandatory student fees in a recent article about the University of Minnesota system. The article noted that student fees at a UMN campus could fund everything from the school’s “quidditch club” to the Feminist Student Activist Collective – regardless of whether the funding conflicts with the beliefs of fee-paying students.

The hundreds of dollars in student fees are especially cumbersome for students who do not participate in, nor support, the activities that their student fees fund. Just last year, legislation was proposed in Minnesota to make mandatory fees that fund “noninstructional student programs, activities, groups, or services” optional – but the bill failed to pass.

If students are finally fighting against “free speech zones” at their institutions, then advocating for the reform of mandatory student fees should be next on their to-do list.